This invention is concerned with packages of bottles and the like, containers and carriers therefor. Such bottles are conventionally of the type including a generally cylindrical reduced neck portion diverging to a larger body portion. The neck openings may be closed in a variety of ways such as screw caps, pressed-on caps, plastic closures, etc. The closure is an important element because the contents of most of the bottles are pressurized and thus a reliable seal must be maintained. These types of bottles or containers may be and have been assembled in multi-packages through various forms of carriers or retainers. The containers are typically arrayed in a rank-and-row relationship usually in two parallel rows of three ranks and retained in that array for handling.
Typical of such efforts to multi-package such containers are paperboard wrap-arounds or partial wrap-arounds which either completely surround and encase the array, or partially surround the array in such a manner to prohibit inadvertent removal of the bottles during handling or storage. Such paperboard packages obviously have several disadvantages, a primary disadvantage being that the wrap-around material deteoriates due to moisture and thus the integrity of such a package is reduced considerably. Other packaging concepts utilized for such bottles include a top gripping carrier such as generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,094. This carrier relies upon a tab-like gripping of the bottle directly adjacent the cap. The material of the carrier must be relatively stiff to hold the bottles and keep them in the array using a one-piece device. While this package presents a generally attractive and somewhat acceptable package, it does inherently have the disadvantage of potentially damaging or prematurely breaking the seal in the caps as the bottles are being removed.
Many other efforts to produce a multi-package for such bottles include a two-part device such as a band member around the periphery of the array in conjunction with a flexible resilient plastic member associated with and joining the necks of the bottles, such as typified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,504. A similar technique of joining the top regions of the bottles and individually encircling the bottom regions of the bottle with plastic band is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,787.